Collective memory was stirred by the protracted “debate” that occurred in the Senate on June 9 and 10 before it was finally convened as an impeachment court that subsequently voted 18-5 to remand the complaint against the impeached Vice President Sara Duterte to the House of Representatives.

The result? Nuggets of contemporary history emerging dusty but gleaming to serve as backdrop to the performative behavior of, for example, Sen. Joel Villanueva, during the hourslong back and forth in the chamber. Coupled with posted footage of the sidelights of the proceedings showing a clique of senators pushing one of their own to raise a point of order while Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros was discussing the wisdom of proceeding with the trial, these nuggets now serve as reminders to the public of the circumstances from which someone such as Villanueva, who hogged the Senate floor to the point of garrulity, springs. 

The posted footage of various angles unseen by TV viewers also clearly identify the posse with whom Sen. Imee Marcos now runs. Not that naming them is still needed.The attentive observer may note how, among them, she both sticks out like a sore thumb (by virtue of her striking looks) and blends in (being now of the same feather). He may not grasp it, but this is surely part of the “irony” that Sen. Bato dela Rosa declared, reading from a prepared speech, he has become “skilled in spotting.”

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada lamented what he called the “pagkawatakwatak”—divisiveness —brought about by the impeachment of a high official. Of course, he was harking back to the November 2000 impeachment by the House which forthwith resulted in the trial by the Senate of his father, then President Joseph Estrada, that ultimately altered the power structure.

‘The ‘nos’ have it’

Joseph Estrada was impeached on charges of, among others, graft and corruption, bribery, and betrayal of public trust. The tension in his impeachment trial peaked dramatically in January 2001 when a vote was called on the opening of a “second envelope” thought to hold important evidence. After the count—11 “no” votes, 10 “yes” votes—Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., the presiding officer, announced: “The ‘nos’ have it.” And the rest, as Jinggoy Estrada put it tritely, is history.

How do young people learn about momentous past events such as this, to help them better understand current developments, if not through assiduous reading and research or maybe from their parents and certain teachers? Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial was terminated in the wake of the walkout of the outraged “yes” voters led by Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., who resigned his Senate presidency, and the House prosecutors. Four days of unrelenting mass actions protesting the suppression of evidence, as well as the military’s withdrawal of support, forced the then president to step down. He would eventually be charged with plunder at the Sandiganbayan and be found guilty.

Among the 11 on record as having voted against the opening of the “second envelope” were Senators Tessie Aquino Oreta, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Juan Ponce Enrile, Nikki Coseteng, Vicente Sotto III, and Gringo Honasan. Also Senators Robert Jaworski, Blas Ople, Kit Tatad, John Osmena, and Ramon Revilla Sr.  

Senators Loren Legarda and Rene Cayetano (since deceased) were among the 10 who voted “yes.” At the current impeachment court’s vote last June 10, Legarda, Joseph Estrada’s sons (Senators Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito), and Rene Cayetano’s children (Senators Pia and Alan Peter Cayetano), were among the 18 who voted to remand the impeachment complaint against the Vice President to the House, effectively stalling the trial..

Nene Pimentel’s son and namesake, Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, Hontiveros, and Senators Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian and Grace Poe voted against the remand. The exhausted TV viewer realizing the dismal implication of the 18-5 vote and casting about for points to situate the forthright five will recall Gatchalian as ably assisting Hontiveros in her inquiry into the workings of Philippine offshore gaming operators, or Pogos, and their damning effects on the nation. And Binay and Poe at the photo op during the May 2016 proclamation of 12 newly elected senators, sticking out like sore thumbs for desisting from performing the fist bump also known as the Rodrigo Duterte salute.  

Personal privilege speech

In the personal privilege speech in which Dela Rosa called for the dismissal of the complaint against the Vice President, the speech that he attempted to deliver before the impeachment court could be convened, as the senators had agreed the day previous, he spoke disdainfully of the taumbayan calling for the trial to commence. He said the taumbayan he had talked with during the recent election campaign told him that he would get their vote if he voted against impeachment. 

The gentleman from Davao waxed eloquent, alternating between English and Filipino, saying at one point that the nation was in perilous shape: “estrukturang itinayo sa gilid ng bangin.” 

To be sure, many writers make their living stringing words together for government officials wanting to make a splash in the pool of legislative/political debate. Still, even if it was clear that Dela Rosa was speaking in words not his own, he delivered his camp’s  constant message: The impeachment complaint against Sara Duterte is “constitutionally unsound” and should be thrown out. The suave, almost fond, intervention of “Compañero” Cayetano’s son—that the complaint should just be remanded to the House for “clarification”—and the ensuing tender exchange between him and Dela Rosa et al. served as support to Senate President Chiz Escudero’s steady claim that there is and has been no attempt to delay or dismiss the verified complaint transmitted by the House to the Senate as early as February.

But in his speech, the former chief of the Philippine National Police and chief implementor of Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” let it be known that he is working “under the guidance of the Holy Spirit”—a seeming stab at linking with those charmed by religious invocations.  

Days later, imee Marcos, fresh from dancing attendance on the Vice President in Malaysia and commenting on her bestie’s declaration to overseas Filipino workers that it is she, Imee Marcos, who will bring Rodrigo Duterte home from imprisonment in The Hague, was heard confirming the “challenges” she is facing and leaving everything to God: “Diyos na ang bahala.”

Memory was stirred by this seasoned pol’s claimed connection to the Divine: a recurring scene of her mother, Imelda Marcos, beset by court cases and walking on her knees on a church aisle all the way to the altar.

Read more: Senate impeachment court convened, votes to remand complaint to House